Don't Hold Water

existentialism

Jean-Paul Sartre

dad joke

dreadlocks

angst

Friedrich Nietzsche

Soren Kierkegaard

Valentine's Day

Albert Camus

academic

nihilism

trolley problem

philosophy

light bulb joke

philosopher

existentialist

G.W.F. Hegel

life

pessimism

Slavoj Zizek

Arthur Schopenhauer

suicide

meaning of life

is, (as captured in Sartre's famous phrase: 'Existence precedes essence') wrongheaded in that it is simply a reversal of plato and is thus still a metaphysical statement.

Sartre expresses the basic tenet of existentialism in this way: Existence precedes essence. In this statement he is taking existentia and essentia according to their metaphysical meaning, which from Plato's time on has said that essentia precedes existential. Sartre reverses this statement. But the reversal of a metaphysical statement remains a metaphysical statement' (Heidegger 'letter on Humanism' 232 in basic writings)

is defined by the catch-phrase 'existence comes before essence'.

existence comes before essence or, if you will, that we must begin from the subjective. What exactly do we mean by that''

is grounded in the insight that if A equals B, then A minus B equals nothing.

Existentialists may be described as the people who have discovered that if A equals B, then A minus B equals nothing.

is not so atheistic that it wears itself out showing that God doesn't exist. Rather, it declares that even if God did exist, that would change nothing.

Existentialism isn't so atheistic that it wears itself out showing that God doesn't exist. Rather, it declares that even if God did exist, that would change nothing.

is about being where you are and taking responsibility for who you are -- be that physically or imaginatively. An existential map has 'you are here' written all over it.

I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it.

is the idea that one is entitled to a side dish of either coleslaw or potato salad, and the choice must be made in terror, with the knowledge that not only is our time on earth limited but most kitchens close at ten.

In life, one is entitled to a side dish of either coleslaw or potato salad, and the choice must be made in terror, with the knowledge that not only is our time on earth limited but most kitchens close at ten. Woody Allen

is wrongheaded in that it discovers freedom within a prison, a demand for commitment expressing its impotence, and a personality that realizes itself only in suicide.

At the culmination of the historical effort of a society to refuse to recognize that it has any function other than the utilitarian one, and in the anxiety of the individual confronting the 'concentrational'4 form of the social bond that seems to arise to crown this effort, existentialism must be judged by the explanations it gives of the subjective impasses that have indeed resulted from it... a freedom that is never more authentic than when it is within the walls of a prison... a demand for commitment, expressing the impotence of a pure consciousness to master any situation... a voyeuristic-sadistic idealization of the sexual relation... a personality that realizes itself only in suicide... a consciousness of the other than can be satisfied only by Hegelian murder. (Lacan 'mirror' : 6)

is a French school of philosophy popular for a time during the 1950s and 1960s that taught its adherents how to wear a black turtleneck, dangle a cigarette from the lips and strike just the correct pose of dour worldliness-all useful tools for seducing female graduate students over coffee.

A French school of philosophy popular for a time during the 1950s and 1960s; taught its adherents how to wear a black turtleneck, dangle a cigarette from the lips and strike just the correct pose of dour worldliness-all useful tools for seducing female graduate students over coffee.

existentialism, n.All

existentialism